Fierce HealthcareSome primary care doctors have switched to concierge practices, but now a group of Los Angeles-based surgeons is trying out the idea. The doctors believe that the concierge model can work in surgery as well, according to Outpatient Surgery Magazine. Prime Surgeons earlier this month launched an online network of what it calls "elite master surgeons" to provide patients with access to surgical care on-demand, according to the group's announcement.READ MORE

Fierce HealthcareIn a 54-page letter, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) urged the government to make changes to simplify the proposed new Medicare payment system for physicians.
The payment system currently proposed to implement the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) won’t create the value-based system that Congress intended, the MGMA said in the letter sent Friday to Andrew M. Slavitt, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.READ MORE

Fierce HealthcareWith so many concerns to worry about, HIPAA is just one more compliance headache for many physician practices. However, if you’ve kept an eye on the headlines, you know that recent data breaches at healthcare organizations mean you can’t just ignore HIPAA regulations, according to Physicians Practice. Failure to comply with patient privacy rules can get healthcare workers in serious trouble, such as the case at ProMedica hospitals in Michigan where three employees were terminated after they accessed patient records which they were not authorized to look at.READ MORE

The New York TimesHouse Republicans on Wednesday unveiled new proposals to repeal and replace President Barack Obama's health care law, as Speaker Paul Ryan seeks to showcase a GOP governing agenda amid the tumult of the presidential campaign. "Obamacare is fundamentally flawed," Ryan told reporters at an event rolling out the GOP plan. "We're saying, don't force people to buy insurance. Make insurance companies compete for our business."READ MORE

BloombergIs your doctor willing to sell you out for the price of a sandwich? That’s the implication a lot of people seem to have taken from a new study published by JAMA Internal Medicine. It looked at the prescribing behavior of physicians for whom pharmaceutical reps bought meals, and found that those who got even a meal worth less than $20 – think Olive Garden or Potbelly, not Le Bernardin – were significantly more likely to prescribe brand-name medications that had a cheaper alternative.READ MORE

PoliticoScope of practice — who can practice what kind of medicine, in what settings and under what type of physician supervision, if any — is an issue that has preoccupied state legislatures and the courts for years. The disputes involve physicians, nurse practitioners, chiropractors, pharmacists, dental hygienists, respiratory therapists, podiatrists, pharmacists, midwives — and just about everyone else in medicine. It has taken on renewed importance in the past few years given the coverage expansion of the Affordable Care Act, the shortage of primary care physicians and mental health practitioners in sections of the country, the needs of an aging population, and the pressures to find ways of providing care less expensively without harming quality.READ MORE

The Seattle TimesSeattle’s Virginia Mason Medical Center has been denied full accreditation by the Joint Commission after the hospital failed to meet nearly 30 standards during a surprise review in May. The unannounced visit by the nonprofit group that inspects 21,000 hospitals and programs in the U.S. found that Virginia Mason was out of compliance in 29 areas ranging from conducting fire drills and reducing risk of infection from medical equipment and devices to providing an environment with no risk of “immediate threat to life.”READ MORE

Community ImpactAs Austin traffic increases and the U.S. faces a nationwide shortage of urologists, one urology practice aims to make it easier for patients to see their doctors. In March, Austin Urology Institute launched a telemedicine program in which patients not requiring a physical examination may choose a virtual visit, said Dr. Koushik Shaw, who started the practice four years ago.READ MORE

HealthLeaders MediaValue-based reimbursement models in healthcare have graduated from the wave of the future to the tsunami of the present. Data from the second survey commissioned by McKesson to gauge the prevalence of value-based reimbursement models among hospitals and payers nationwide was released this week at the annual conference of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).READ MORE

Science DailyDoctors and scientists at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City printed and used a 3-D kidney to help save a patient's organ during a complicated tumor-removal procedural. The 3-D-printed model allowed doctors to study the patient's kidney in 3-D to determine how to best remove the tumor as it was located in a precarious location adjacent to vital arteries and veins.READ MORE

Renal & Urology NewsTestosterone replacement therapy (TRT) does not worsen oncologic outcomes in hypogonadal men with prostate cancer, according to study findings presented at the Canadian Urological Association 2016 annual meeting in Vancouver. Jesse Ory, of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and colleagues identified 83 hypogonadal men with prostate cancer (PCa) who received TRT. The group included 50 men who had radiation therapy (RT), 22 who underwent radical prostatectomy (RP), 8 placed on active surveillance (AS), 1 who had cryotherapy, and 1 treated with high-intensity focused ultrasound. The median patient age was 75.5 years and median follow-up was 41 months.READ MORE

HealthLeaders MediaA study from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles estimates the cost for care at California hospitals increased 76 percent over the last decade and that costs at large health systems increased by a larger margin. The study, published in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, used claims data from Blue Shield of California to calculate payments (actual prices versus billed charges) to hospitals, focusing on hospitals in the largest multi-hospital systems.READ MORE